United States
Environmental Protection
Agency
Solid Waste and
Emergency Response
(5306W)
EPA-530-F-99-017C
October 1999
www.epa.gov/osw
Bergen County,
New Jersey
54% Municipal Solid Waste Reduction
(49% Residential Solid Waste Reduction; 63% Institutional/Commercial
Solid Waste Reduction)
Overview
Bergen County provides solid waste management
funding, technical assistance, education programs, and data
management to its 70 municipalities. The county also owns a
waste transfer station and a yard trimmings processing facility.
The Bergen County Long-Term Solid Waste Management
Plan mandates residential recycling of eight materials. All
communities in Bergen County have passed their own
mandatory recycling ordinances; some of these ordinances
mandate recycling of materials in addition to those required
by the county. All but seven of the municipalities provide
residential trash services or hire and pay for a contractor to
collect their residents' trash, residents of the other
communities must contract directly with trash haulers. Sixty-
nine of the 70 county communities offer curbside recycling
services, and four have pay-as-you-throw trash systems. The
County Solid Waste Management Plan requires commercial
and institutional establishments to
recycle corrugated cardboard, high-
grade and mixed paper, glass food and
beverage containers, aluminum cans,
ferrous scrap, white goods, and
construction and demolition debris
and to track and report the amounts of
materials recovered.
DHALU
POPULATION: 825,380
(1995)
HOUSEHOLDS: 330,473
(1996); 250,000
single- family
dwellings (estimate, 4
or fewer units per
building), 80,000
multi-family
dwellings (estimate, 5
or more units)
BUSINESSES: 30,859
(1998)
Keys to High Waste Reduction
The keys to Bergen County's high
waste diversion rate are mandatory
recycling; historically high disposal
fees; the existence of well-
established markets for recovered
materials; extensive eduction and
outreach programs; technical
assistance; and the availability of a
PROGRAM SUMMARY
1993
1995
Tons Per Year MSW1
Tons Per Year RSW
Tons Per Year ICW
1,086,055
693,840
392,215
1,086,055
693,840
392,215
Percent MSW Diverted! 52% 54%
Percent RSW Diverted 49% 49%
Percent ICW Diverted 57% 63%
Average lbs./HH/day2
15.21
15.21
Net Program Costs/HH NA NA
Disposal Services NA NA
Diversion Services NA NA
Key: MSW = municipal solid waste RSW = residential solid waste
ICW = institutional and commercial waste
NA = not available
Notes: Numbers may not add to total due to rounding.
11n order to account for waste bypassing the county transfer
station in 1995, ILSR assumed 1995 MSW, RSW, and ICW to be
equal to 1993 MSW, RSW, and ICW, respectively and added an
estimated tonnage to disposal.
2Rgures represent residential sector only. ILSR estimated
households served in 1993 and 1995 as 250,000, the number of
dwellings in buildings with four or fewer units.
Source: Institute for Local Self-Reliance, 1999.
This profile is part of the fact sheet Cutting the Waste Stream in Half: Community Record-Setters Show How (EPA-530-F-99-017).
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yard debris management facility. Although
trash tip fees dropped to $54 per ton at the
Bergen County Utilities Authority Transfer
Station in 1998, from January 1990 until
November 1997, tip fees at the facility were
over $100 per ton. Bergen County is home to
two paper mills that create a constant demand
for recovered paper. The county runs an
education and outreach program that includes
advertising, publications, promotions, education
programs, a hotline, and a lending library. The
county's 25-acre yard debris composting site
composts grass clippings, leaves, and brush and
sells the finished material.
Cost-Effectiveness
The Bergen County Utilities Authority's
budget for solid waste management includes its
transfer station costs, hauling costs, tip fees,
landfill closure costs, recycling and source
reduction financial assistance programs,
education and publicity costs, staff and
administration costs, and debt service. The
Authority's expenditures represent only a
portion of the costs of waste management in
the county. Each county community operates
a waste management program, which is for the
most part financed by community funds. In a
limited survey of community recycling
coordinators from Bergen County, all six
RESIDENTIAL WASTE GENERATION
PER HOUSEHOLD PER DAY
MATERIALS RECOVERED
The County requires each community to recycle newspaper, glass food
and beverage containers, food and beverage cans, ferrous scrap, white
goods, leaves, and grass clippings from residential waste. Some county
communities recycle additional materials such as
magazines, plastics,
and other paper
grades.
Compost piles at the
Bergen County-owned
compost facility
1993 1995
| Trash ] Recycling | Composting
Source: Institute for Local Self-Reliance, 1999.
respondents claimed their waste reduction
programs saved money or cost no more than
disposal. Reasons cited for the cost-
effectiveness of the programs include reduced
trash costs as a result of diversion, lower labor
costs as a result of waste reduction,
saving on compost for city
projects, free hauling and
no tip fees for recyclables,
and revenues from sale of
recovered materials off-
setting program costs.
Tips for Replication
Support community innovation with
small grants.
Make waste reduction programs
mandatory.
Design a user friendly program.
Provide bins for curbside recycling
participants.
Be accessible.
Contact
Nina Herman Seiden
Recycling Program Manager
Bergen County Utilities Authority
Department of Solid Waste Planning and Development
RO. Box 9
Foot of Mehrhof Road
Little Ferry, NJ 07643
PHONE: 201-641-2552 x5822
FAX: 201-641-3509
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